Undated courtesy photo, circa Oct. 2017, of longtime KARE-TV “Sunrise” anchor Kim Insley. KARE 11 announced Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 that the station and Insley were parting ways. She was the morning anchor for more than 24 years (Courtesy of KARE 11)

“I don’t have offers rolling in, no,” Insley said during a Friday phone call. “I have had interesting conversations with people about where to take my skills and how to use them.”

For more than two decades, Insley put her skills to use by anchoring KARE 11’s “Sunrise” show on weekdays.

But then, at 5:17 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, KARE 11 posted this announcement on Facebook: “After 24 years, KARE 11 and sunrise anchor, Kim Insley, are parting ways. Kim has been a leader in the newsroom and we are appreciative and grateful for her many contributions. We have been working with Kim to make sure this transition is as seamless as possible. This is in no way a reflection of Kim’s many talents. She will be missed at KARE 11 and we wish her the best.”

That was it: No cake, no card, no chance for a long goodbye. Just a brief, unexplained absence from the anchor chair … and then a Facebook status update on a Friday night.

The comments on KARE 11’s Facebook post — more than 1,500 so far — ranged from the outraged (“Anyone who has given 24 years of their life to one organization deserves a proper sendoff”) to the cynical (“forced to walk the plank off KARE 11’s good ship, the USS Millennial”) to the bittersweet best wishes (“Kim Insley is one of the few true pros in local news. Unflappable, prepared, always professional. Your viewers thank you for being such a pro, and we wish you all the best in your next stage”).

Insley said her goodbyes online, posting a video message at 6:55 p.m. on Oct. 20 — not from behind the anchor desk, but instead as she strolled down a wooded walking path:

“Well, hello there,” she said into the camera. “You’ve probably heard that I’m not on the air anymore. Which means after 24 and a half years, there’s a lot to look forward to, and there’s a lot to be grateful for, including my former colleagues.”

As she began to talk about her colleagues, her well-modulated anchor voice waivered slightly with emotion.

“They are smart, they are talented, they are hardworking and I will miss seeing them every day,” Insley said.

Deep breath, cut to a new scene: A farmers’ market? As Insley walked along, people in the background stopped and turned, perhaps recognizing this local news personality.

“Which brings me to you,” Insley continued, talking to the camera. “I just want to say thank you for all those years of watching me, for making me a part of the community. My husband and I could not have asked for a better place to raise our family. And you have supported me all these years. I appreciate that. You have pushed me at times to be a better journalist, and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

But … what happened?

“I didn’t ask them why they didn’t want me on the morning show anymore,” Insley said on Friday, “because I can’t control that and I do believe they have a right to put on whoever they want.”

Efforts to reach KARE 11 management were unsuccessful on Friday afternoon, but Insley did talk about the news industry in general with Tom Barnard on 92 KQRS on Friday morning.

“The technology has changed,” she said. “People want it right in their hand or whatever screen is right in front of them. Therefore, the revenues are going down. So I think what you’re seeing are a lot of major companies who have big pressure to try to keep the earnings up and the only way you can do that, if you can’t figure out the business model, is to deal with the other side of it, and that’s cutting your employment costs and we’ve been seeing that for years now.”

Insley, 56, of Plymouth, is orginally from Oregon, but she now seems as Minnesotan as hotdish, honeycrisp apples and Harmon Killebrew — and she is now related to native Minnesotans: Insley and her husband, Realtor Pete Lentine, have two daughters, who are 18 and 21 and away at college.

“It worked out very well for my family,” Insley says of all those early-morning shifts. “My husband could get the kids off to school in the morning and, because half my day was over by the time they even woke up, it meant that I was free to volunteer at their schools, to always be there for them after school, to attend evening things without worrying about having a live shot at 6. It was a really good situation. But now we’re empty nesters, so it’s interesting timing. This fall, I asked myself: ‘Why am I getting up at 10 to 2 in the morning?’ ”

She’s not anymore.

“I got up at 6:30!” she said on Friday.

On Friday, in between media interviews, Insley went to lunch with a friend. She’s also doing some thinking — thinking over her next move, not as a journalist but as a citizen.

“As a journalist, you have to very much be neutral on everything,” she says. “Even if it’s something like a school bonding issue in your own community, you can’t say boo one way or the other. That was getting old for me. So I’ve had a strong sense of knowing that I wanted to transition into something else eventually. This speeds up the process for me.”

“This” was a surprise.

“Yes I was surprised at the development,” Insley says, in a guarded way, of her departure. “They wanted to go a different direction in the mornings and that was a surprise.”

Change can be good, though.

“I feel like I’ve had enough years in the business that I’ve earned the right to do things that I feel passionate about,” she says. “And I’m extremely fortunate in that my husband works and we’ve saved — we’ve been great savers — so I don’t feel like I have to jump into something. I’m not panicked about picking up something right away. I want to find something that is a good fit for me. I think I can be useful. I really want to be useful.”

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